Can Becoming a “Thoughtleader” Give You an Edge as a CEO?

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Can Becoming a “Thoughtleader” Give You an Edge as a CEO?

by: Ken Lizotte

Can Becoming a “Thoughtleader” Give You an Edge as a CEO? Attempts to
Quantify Its ROI Say YES

Have you ever thought about or noticed another CEO utilizing “thoughtleading”
as a business development strategy? Positioning yourself and your firm as
leading-edge thinkers in your field involves publishing articles and books,
speaking regularly to professional groups, getting yourself noticed by the media
and surveying your target market in order to produce research data that only you
possess.

If that sounds like fun, or simply a potentially advantageous way to
distinguish your firm’s services, one major hurdle to choosing to implement such
a novel strategy might be the question of ROI, specifically: Does evidence exist
that a thoughtleading strategy really will generate new business growth? Is
there any way to accurately measure this? Can a “thoughtleading
Return-on-Investment (ROI)” be quantified? More importantly, can it pay
dividends for YOU as a CEO?

Happily, the answer to all four questions is “yes.” Studies indicate that a
quantifiable ROI can in fact be discerned, and, just as happily, indications are
that results will be overwhelmingly affirmative. Getting to the heart of the
issue, however, first requires an understanding that age-old ways of measuring
ROI may not always apply here. That’s because a new equation in our economy, one
that’s mistier than traditional bottom-line measurements, demands alternative
methods of measurement. This new equation is the economic asset of “intellectual
capital” (or IC).

The concrete ROI metric standard until now has always been based on
“I-can-see-it-with-my-own-eyes.” This still applies to material goods of course
but IC’s decidedly non-Industrial Age elements can be harder to fathom. Mary
Adams, Managing, Principal of Trek Consulting LLC (http://www.trekconsulting.com/),
specialists in the developing study of IC as an asset that can be measured,
explains it this way:

“Can you imagine a merchant without an inventory report, having to sell
product without knowing the quantity or price of goods he owns? Yet this is the
position that most corporate leaders are in today. They lack basic consolidated
information about their most important resources: Do we have the right people,
network, and knowledge to meet our goals? Are we positioned for continued
innovation? Where are we at risk?”

Such relatively “soft” questions leave the interpretation of data and
resulting ROI conclusions in the hands (and minds) of analysts to a greater
degree than has been true of traditional ROI measurement with its clear numbers
and black-and-white company balance sheet. As one example, Kennedy Information,
the nation’s premiere management consulting think tank, which regularly conducts
surveys of management consulting compensation, has found that firms and
individual consultants at the topmost point of the compensation chart are paid
way, way better than the remaining 99% below. When asked how the top 1% manage
this, the response is crisp and clear: “Oh, those highest revenue-producers are
the ones who regularly publish articles and books, do speaking engagements, and
connect with the media,” the Kennedy people explain. “They are the
thoughtleaders.”

Another recent study has also correlated increased revenue with publishing,
speaking, media and other individual thoughtleading actions, adding that
thoughtleading’s ROI will be measurably high when thoughtleading actions are
integrated with a firm’s more traditional marketing and sales activities.
Article-publishing ROI, for example, incorporated in the marketing and selling
pipeline, can easily be measured by asking prospects if the firm’s published
articles had played any part either in their initial decision to approach the
company or in their ultimate decision to do business with the company. One
professional services firm can testify to this personally.

“We always email prospects a PDF or two of our published articles early in
the sales process,” says the firm’s president. “We want our prospects to see a
relevant published article of ours so they will glance at it and be impressed.
‘Wow, this looks pretty cool’ may be all they say, then we move on. But that’s
sufficient to stamp my firm as something more than some run-of-the-mill
consultancy, which is what they may be thinking.”

Some studies have even produced clear and definitive measurements sufficient
to satisfy even the most old school quantifiability standards. One survey of law
firms by Levick Strategic Communications and PR Newswire surveyed 200 firms that
had gotten themselves mentioned consistently in the legal media. Their survey
found that the 25 firms on its list with the highest revenues were also those
with an average increase of nearly 20% in overall media presence over the
previous two years. Firms ranked below these 25 in terms of income, however,
reported a mere 1% increase in media presence.

Is there also anecdotal evidence that thoughtleading produces a measurable
ROI? You bet. Former top executive recruiter Jim Masciarelli, now founder and
CEO of PowerSkills Solutions, a “relationship capital” consulting firm, recalls
one time when his book PowerSkills: Building Top-Level Relationships for
Bottom-Line Results clearly led directly to a piece of business that he
certainly would not have landed on his own:

“A partner of a top venture capital firm who knew me from my past career as a
retained executive search consultant called me up after receiving an
announcement of my book PowerSkills, which details a system I created for
building profitable business relationships. He said, ‘I understand you’re now
doing advisory and alignment work with CEOs and executive teams. We could really
use your help!’

“Their portfolio company had just acquired a major Internet company in a 22-
billion dollar stock deal,” Jim recalls, “but the CEO did not yet have a plan to
integrate these companies. The mere announcement of my book (and, with it, my
new practice) repositioned me as an expert in his mind in this new line of work
I was now pursing. As a result, I got the introduction to the CEO and ultimately
the assignment as well.”

Are you wondering if all this means that publishing an article or a book, or
engaging in other thoughtleading actions such as public speaking, media and
research, will automatically yield you new business and/or drive your incomes
levels up above that of your competitors? Well, there are no guarantees in life,
so no one can say for sure. But it is clear from all the data and anecdotal
evidence that the likelihood is there. Since most CEOs will ignore it, a
thoughtleading business development strategy could be the smartest decision you
and your firm could make. There are just so very many facts, figures, studies,
stories and personal experiences to back you up.

Ken Lizotte CMC is Chief Imaginative Officer (CIO) of emerson consulting
group inc. (Concord MA), a consulting firm that transforms CEOs and their
companies into “thoughtleaders.” Author of ”The Expert’s Edge: Become the Go-To
Authority that People Turn to Every Time” (McGraw Hill 2008) and four previous
books as well as hundreds of published articles, he is a frequent public speaker
on such topics as thoughtleading, getting published, creativity and balancing
work and family. A current member of the IMC USA Board of Directors, he served
as President of IMC New England from 2000 to 2005, co-founded the National
Writers Union, leads career seminars at Harvard University and is a former
columnist for the American Management Association. Ken can be reached at
ken@thoughtleading,com or by
visiting www.thoughtleading.com